MINNESOTA
Patch
Only 30 clerics were on last week’s list of accused priests, but an animated Patch map and interactive timeline illustrate the scope of their time in the ministry.
Posted by James Warden (Editor) , December 10, 2013
There were just 30 clergymen on last week’s list of priests who have “credible claims against them” of sexually abusing minors. Those priests are a fraction of the clerics who served in the archdiocese between 1933 and 2012, the timeframe that the accused priests were in the ministry. For context, the archdiocese has 495 priests serving right now, plus 1,400 deacons and numerous religious brothers, according to the organization.
Yet the accused priests—some with long tenures in the church—have come into contact with more parishes than their small numbers suggests. In all, the priests have held positions at 92 of the 188 parishes in the archdiocese.
Some locations were home to accused clerics for a disproportionate amount of time. One accused cleric assigned to St. John’s Abbey spent a total of about 35 years there, the most of any location, according to a Patch analysis. Four accused priests spent a total of 31 years at Sacred Heart in Robbinsdale, the second-highest total and the most for a parish. At St. Joseph in Hopkins, the second-highest parish, five accused priests tallied 27 years.
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